Wilson’s presentation is titled “Meeting David Wilson, A Conversation About Race in America.” The program is free and open to the public. Kresge Recital Hall is located in the Humanities Building on the campus of Augustana College.

Wilson, an African-American journalist, is the author and co-director of “Meeting David Wilson,” a feature-length documentary that premiered April 11, 2008, on MSNBC. In researching his family’s ancestry, Wilson learned of a plantation in North Carolina where his family was once enslaved.

Subsequently, he discovered the plantation is owned by a white man – also named David Wilson – who is a direct descendent of his family’s slave master (the two are shown in the picture above, right).

“I have a dream, that one day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners, will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.

This discovery leads to a momentous encounter between the two men who share the same name but whose ancestor were on the opposite sides of freedom. Later, through DNA testing, David is able to trace his African roots back to Ghana, West Africa, where he travels to visit the place where it all began.

In addition to David A. Wilson’s visit Monday, the documentary film “Meeting David Wilson” will be shown at 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00 p.m. in the Morrison Commons Back Alley on Sunday, January 17.